Silica Morphology: Beyond the Surface to Expand the “Magic” Triangle

Increasing fuel costs, legislation, and public attention encourage the automotive industry to pursue more environmentally friendly tires having improved fuel efficiency, safety, and longevity.  However, one must look beyond the benefits supplied by current silica enabled systems in order to further expand this tire "magic" triangle.  It has been found that precipitated silicas having a certain combination of surface area and microporosity are beneficial in optimizing the fuel efficiency to wear resistance ratio thereby enabling a paradigm shift in this magic triangle.  The benefits of this next generation of highly dispersible silicas will be reviewed in this presentation.